Eighth Wonder: Peter Gabriel / “So” reissue box set details

Peter Gabriel tweeted today about how details on the forthcoming So25 reissue would be revealed next week.

However, thanks to an early listing on amazon.com we can reveal that the super deluxe edition, or Floydian “Immersion” edition, will include EIGHT discs. Four CDs, two DVDs and two 12-inch vinyl discs plus a book. As announced on this blog the release date has been pushed back to October (23rd in the US, 22nd everywhere else). Details of contents below:A Limited Edition Deluxe box set comprises the re-mastered So album, the 2CD Live in Athens 1987 album, So DNA CD which gives a unique insight into the writing and recording of So, experienced via a track by track evolutionary process leading you from the early moments when rhythms, melodies and lyrical ideas were discovered through the various stages of song development and recording.

Two previously unreleased DVDs :Live in Athens 1987 , Directed by Michael Chapman, Executive Producer Martin Scorsese. This was the first filmed Peter Gabriel concert, now fully restored and pieced together from over 150 reels of original 35mm negatives and remixed in 5.1, this concert is made available for the first time on DVD.

So: Classic Album documentary. The latest addition to the acclaimed & award winning Classic Album series tells the story behind the making of Peter Gabriel s 1986 album So and features contributions from many of those involved in the album and videos, with interviews with Peter Gabriel, co-producer Daniel Lanois and many more.

12 AA vinyl
An 180grm So LP mastered at half speed to maximize the audio quality & the track listing, unlike the original, is that favoured by the artist.

Double A side 12 vinyl collectible containing two previously unreleased tracks Courage and Sagrada plus Don t Give Up (alternative version piano and bvox mix) and a 60 page case bound book including an introduction and So DNA summary by Peter Gabriel, new liner notes and an extensive collection of rare and never before seen photographs.

Assuming Amazon have it correct, it seems that we will not be getting a 5.1 version of the So studio album, and there is no place in the box for B-sides or 12″ remixes. The only unreleased material are three tracks on the bonus twelve inch vinyl and possibly some on the So DNA CD. It is also surprising that the box is set to include the documentary which is getting a standalone release on Blu-ray, but looks to be here just in DVD form. A three disc version of So 25 will also be available with the two Live In Athens CDs.

What’s your view on the eight-disc box specification?

Pre-order the So Limited Edition Deluxe Box Set here (UK) or here (US)

As a huge Peter Gabriel fan I’ve been waiting for this for years and like everyone else I am extremely disappointed. Two unreleased outtakes that they didn’t bother to put them on CD, only on vinyl. A grand total of ZERO b-sides. A DVD that will be released separately on Blu-ray. Only the DNA CD sounds good but hardly worth spending the £100, I could get 20 other albums for that kind of money. If there’d been more b-sides/unreleased tracks, this would have been a definite purchase. As it is, I’ll take my chances and hopefully it will tumble in price. What a wasted opportunity.

If you won’t pay for loads of silly stuff, don’t buy it. It’s as simple as that. The Gabrieler is estimated as being worth 70 million Pounds. Real World Studios is financing itself, Real World Records is doing okay. He doesn’t need any extra funding. What is mostly shocking is the fact that Sledgehammer-Singer has lost his quality control. This set wouldn’t have contained silly stuff 10 or 15 years ago.

Well such a lot a negativity from all you “progressive hypocrites”. Look, I too would have wanted such a lot more and yes the live discs will be individually released and I have pre purchased both the 3 cd set and the deluxe edition and yes, I’ve been waiting since last year for this finally to be released. However, as with the Pink Floyd Immersion sets, I have been saving since I first heard of this release, secreting change from any cash purchase rounded up to the nearest fiver along with putting what I could out of each pay packet. SO, tomorrow, having preordered via PG web site shop, I will deposit £90 into my bank account to even out the sum removed and hey presto, I have several hundered of our wonderful British pounds left over for splashing out on other music related stuff.
With reagrd to the B sides and remixes and stand alone videos etc., there’ll be a career retrospective box, surely, ala Genesis stuff. SO come on, lets all dig deep and fund a fantastic opportunity for his family to visit places he hasn’t already been to and we’ll never get the chance to.

I do want the concert DVD, but I don’t care about the vinyl and would prefer to get the making-of documentary on Blu-ray, so… will probably get the 3-CD set and hope for a later separate release of the concert film.

I’ve been waiting for this reissue for at least a decade. This is a keeper. I’m for the most part pleased with the overall content, but I hope this isnt the final track listing.

I especially dig the ‘PoV’ Live in Athens gig finally being made available as a 2CD live album and as a DVD. The ‘So DNA’ CD should be a great listen. Sadly, I’m continually disappointed with artists and these ‘MEGA’ boxsets, going to such lengths of loads of quantity, yet they seem to always come up incomplete for the die-hard fan.

I was hoping Mr. Gabriel would finally compile all of the odds and ends mixes and b-sides on CD from the single-heavy era of 1986-87. Unfortunately, it looks as if they’ve missed this (probably final) opportunity to include a comprehensive disc that many of us PG fans have been waiting years for.

I also concur with the sentiments posted here. No remixes???
Seriously??Those were what I was looking forward to the most. Disappointing. Maybe if they read this, they will revise the tracklisting like the Swing Out Sister scenario.

Like everyone here I was really looking forward to this reissue but the price and lack of b-sides, mixes and edits is a huge disappointment. I truly hope the unreleased tunes are available individually but I doubt it. Fingers crossed, we’ll get an expansive box set in a year or two with those sought-after demos, b-sides, mixes and some unreleased tunes included. Maybe the Gabriel’s will have to downsize their holiday plans to 2 weeks in Benidorm.

I think it may be a little premature to accept Amazon’s listing as the final product description. I may be wrong but I hope I’m not because I was very much hoping for a 5.1 version. Amazon is notorious for getting details wrong on pre-orders. I think they post it to get the early jump on the market.

….SO this is not a winning team.
For me “SO” is the best Peter Gabriel album ever.
Wonderful songs full of melancholic feelings.
Where are the great 12″ remixes / single bonus tracks…. ?
I was sure that Peter Gabriel puts alSO out a complete CD with demo versions – many of them were leaked on the Internet in the last years
with ( sometimes ) different lyrics
– but sadly in very pure quality… I have enough live material
of Peter Gabriel… SO boring list… that’s not it !!

I bought the 2-channel SACD of So. I would like a CD of the related B-sides and remixes. A 2CD/1DVD set ala U2’s Joshua Tree or Duran Duran’s remasters would have been excellent. I won’t be buying this set.

To me, this is priced above what I would pay, and doesn’t have the content that would justify me buying it.

I’m not a big enough Gabriel fan to buy the album coupled with a live DVD, if it were released as a 1CD1DVD set. However, if there was a choice between a 2CD (bonus disc of b’s/remixes) or a similar 2CD/1DVD (live video) set, I would spring for the 2CD/1DVD set in that case.

Disappointed that U2 didn’t stick to box sets ala Joshua Tree. I bought mine new for a not-outrageous price. In this age of mp3’s, the added DVD made it an attractive purchase (not that you can’t download video, too).

I suppose the main problem with 2CD sets like those for the first three U2 albums is that I disagree with the order of the tracklisting (not the choice of tracks themselves), and I feel I will just end up burning a resequenced disc anyway, making physical purchase of the set less enticing.

What is so difficult/unappealing about sequencing tracks on a bonus disc in chronological order of original release???

Disappointed like everyone else. The lack of b-sides and remixes is crazy. And wasting 2 CDs on the audio from the DVD is also crazy. I’ve been planning on getting this ever since it was announced, but now I think I’m going to have to pass.

Utterly disappointing. Two DVDs instead of non-album tracks — at least one of which is available separately (and on Blu-ray)? A 2CD album of the audio from the gig that’s on the DVD? The only outtakes are on 12″ vinyl? Not gonna spend money on this.

I agree with several others…would it have been that hard to stick the 4-5 released remixes from this album on the second disc? How difficult is it to understand that if you want all the fans to shell out, you can’t afford to design a package that really only appeals to 20% of them.

Does anyone in Marketing actually do a speck of research anymore? Any one of us who read this webpage could have designed a vastly superior set.

I’m hugely disappointed. I thought Gabriel, of all people, would be immune from this despicable practice of selling boxes full of tat at inflated prices. No mixes, no b-sides and the unreleased cuts on vinyl if your pockets are of excessive depth. Count me out!

Disappointing. Not interested in live stuff, particularly when repeated on DVD in the box. Not interested in getting vinyl and CD of the same album in the set either. Maximised price for duplicate material. The interest for me wld mostly be in the DNA disc and the three bonus tracks. Duplicated material just to get a modest amount of bonuses seems a bit of a rip off. Less liv e stuff, have the main album in surround, more studio bonus material and issue the vinyl separately.

This is SO unbelievably disappointing. All they had to do was mix 3 more tracks in 5.1 and do some possible tweaking to the already released 5.1 mixes on PLAY, and we would’ve had another PG album in surround, but they took the lazy way and included the Classic Albums documentary as the 2nd DVD, when it’s already getting a standalone release on DVD AND Blu-Ray Disc.

I also have a sinking feeling that the Live in Athens DVD will be released separately at some point on DVD and Blu-Ray disc too. I just don’t think that PG and his team would go through all that work remastering the footage in HD to just release it just on DVD, after already releasing 2 Blu-Rays within this last year. So, this will definitely be something I’ll pass up at the ridiculous price of $146.57, saving my money for better box sets like King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, Thick As A Brick, and (possibly) Machine Head.

This is sad news to me. One of my absolute favorite albums remastered, yet the bonus tracks are on vinyl. The live tracks could have been released on their own. I really wish it included 12″ versions not yet on cd, and material long out of print from various singles of that period. Can’t justify the cost for just So DNA disc. That does sound interesting, yet not enough.

Looking forward to this, even though I’m a bit disappointed. I don’t care about live stuff, I’d rather have the various b-sides + 12″ mixes + more unreleased material. But still, a great release. Let’s hope he’ll put out more stuff like this. A PG4 box would be very welcome :)

Is the version of the Classic Albums documentary going to be the broadcast version without extras, or with additional footage? Or (God forbid) is it going to be a cutdown like the version in the Screamdelica “biscuit tin”?

A HUGE let down for me. I was really looking forward to a disc or two of b-sides and 12″/7″ mixes. I’m not a huge concert album fan, and I can rent the Classic Albums documentary, I don’t have a turntable, so there is zero interest for me here. Which is a shame for Gabriel’s bank account, but a plus for my own!